Ukraine

The flag of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which is the flag relevant to Ukraine in any story featuring Ukraine as part of the Soviet Union.

Ukraine is a republic in southeastern Europe. Although once the center of a powerful empire from the 9th century into the 12th century, for much of modern history, Ukraine has been absorbed or partitioned by its neighbors, most importantly Russia. After World War I led to the Russian Revolution, Ukraine was a founding republic of the Soviet Union. Although it retained nominal self-governance, it was under the direct control of Moscow. During the 1930s, Joseph Stalin had many Ukrainians killed in reprisal for an uprising, and ten years later the Nazis killed many more Ukrainians. Ukraine regained its independence with the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991.

In 2041, a German-led a coalition of various European countries passed through Ukraine to meet China's invasion of Russia. While the coalition was initially successful in meeting the invasion in European Russia, by 2043, the German lines were collapsing, and Chinese troops were making their way into Ukraine.[1]

The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic suffered some during the early months of World War III. In January 1951, the Kiev Military District was mobilized as tensions mounted between the Soviet Union and the United States.[2] Once the ground war erupted in February, Ukrainians were conscripted into the Red Army.[3] On 4 March, the U.S. destroyed the capital Kiev with an atomic bomb.[4] As the war in Europe continued to spend lives, the Soviets grew less picky about the Ukrainians they conscripted, taking older and/or infirm men as soldier.[5]

Ukraine was part of the Greater German Reich. During World War II, the Reich committed genocide against the Slavic Ukrainians. The remaining handful of Ukrainians were enslaved by the Reich while the Ukraine was made part of the Ostlands and was settled by Germans.

It was at Zaporozhye in the Ukraine in 1943 that German Field Marshall Erich von Manstein lost his cool and impulsively killed FührerAdolf Hitler during a war council. Manstein took over the German government and signed a peace treaty with the Soviet Union.[6] In the process, the Ukraine was partitioned between the two powers, an arrangement which still persisted in 1979.[7]

Formerly a Russian province, Ukraine was taken from Russia by Germany at the end of the Great War. It was subject to a brutal German occupation during the confusion of the Russian Civil War. With the outbreak of the Second Great War, Ukraine became a major battlefield. Though nominally allied with the Central Powers, the Ukrainians' allegiances were divided, and during 1942-3 the country was ravaged by partisan bands aligned with one side or the other.

By the end of 1943, Germany had successfully liberated Ukraine from Russian forces.

Some six years after the eruption of the Yellowstone Supervolcano, Russia, suffering from harsh winters and a complete failure of agriculture, invaded bothUkraine and Kazakhstan, which were somewhat better off. The Russians used the fact that both countries had historically been under Russian rule as a thin casus belli.[8] Both countries reached out to NATO, but the response was limited at best. The U.S.Secretary of State expressed disapproval of the invasion. Russia effectively told the USA that the invasion was none of its business.[9]

The invasion did not go as hoped. In addition to the cost on the ground, Kazakh special forces were able to infiltrate Russia and blow-up two nuclear power plants. While the explosions did not cause a meltdown on the level of Chernobyl, they did raise the background radiation.[10]

The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was one of the republics making up the Soviet Union. During World War II, German forces had stirred up a Ukrainian separatist movement, and over 20 years after the Race Invasion of Tosev 3, the movement was still active, committing acts of violence against Soviet officials and agencies. The rebels were still supported by Germany, which smuggled weapons to them via Romania, as well as by the Race, which smuggled weapons across the Polish border. Nikita Khrushchev was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Ukrainian SSR and its chief political executive official.